Posted by SGT on June 17, 2007, 11:29 am, in reply to "Need help"
Jason: I don't know exactly what you plan to do, restoration wise to this 00 Grade, but, if you are planning to have the frame re-colored, why not have Buck weld-up the set screw holes and let them be history. Hunter later determined these little aggravating "jewels" weren't necessary and dropped them after only a short production period anyway; and given the quality of Buck's work, it would be impossible to tell afterwards that this gun had ever had set screws, nor would that modification be "out of period". If you have studied pre-13 Smith guns you will note that bushed firing pins had been totally eliminated by about 1909 anyway; but there is also a lot of SN# overlap, as catagloged ship dates from the early records don't always reflect the actual ship date (I've seen some ejector gun records where a few guns were not shipped until more than 3 years after the numerically assigned number was entered onto the ledger page). If your plans are to leave the frame "as is", and only replace bushings and screws, you'll probably be better off to let Buck make those two screws, his prices are always very fair and you're likely to expend a lot of effort in the interim. Good Luck